The family antics continue as both Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor look forward to starting at their new schools. Never trust an excitable filly with your laundry, that's the lesson to be taken away from this, I think.

The uniform design is my own. In retrospect I could have made it a bit more in-line with the kind of design elements we see on the show (which tend to have a lot of ornamentation), rather than just a ponified version of a human cadet uniform, but it'll do. Mind you, if you look at Spitfire's uniform in "Wonderbolts Academy", that's very human-like and appears to be based on the USAF officer's dress uniform, so maybe I'm being too hard on myself.

It's hard to put a simple figure on it. The idea for this comic grew out of a couple of pieces I drew last year (this and this, specifically), and I decided I wanted to write and draw a comic exploring Twilight's early years at Celestia's school. I spent maybe a week of idle thought planning out the major beats I wanted to hit in the story, but the details get fleshed out as I go. Sometimes I'll have a very clear idea of exactly how the next two or three strips will go, other times the idea for a joke or moment will form as I'm planning. For example, the whole bit with Thunderhead and his story was originally just supposed to have Twilight boarding the airship to get Smarty Pants back, and she gets scared by his appearance (though he still turns out to be kind), but as I worked out the events for those strips I realised it would be even more impactful to explore his character further and make Twilight both slightly scared and slightly in awe of him. Anyway, despite the story continuing to evolve as I write and draw each strip, I still have a clear idea of where I want to take it, and this is a huge help in planning it.

Wow you really put a whole lot of effort into this and you have a clear goal set. This maybe to personal but do you do this for a hobby or is it just because you have something similar to this and get paid with this line of work, because this is not an easy project for anyone. I come up with many stories and scenarios but I never was very talented in the drawing aspects of art but you do both and that is a challenge.